Cosmic Crossing

It's quite hard to leave what one considers home and move on to another and start life anew. This is a story with such a familiar scene that all would say is just like a dream. However, the ones who are starting a new life are not humankind but instead another beyond our cosmic time. The lives that are leaving come from a planet in dire need of help with little to guide them, and no plan ahead. They leave each their own without friends and assistance, but fate may just grant some a chance of a lifetime.

For one lucky being, that might soon be the case. His name is Jaka and he is on a mission of absolute survival. His kind refers to themselves as the Eclipse people since their original home was subject to many eclipses throughout each year. In comparison to humankind, they average the height of a fully grown man, though their woman often was a full head above the rest. With skin and hair very similar to our own but marked in an array of stripes and spirals, they looked as if they were living works of tie-dye. Six toes and fingers lined the ends of their limbs and within the center of each appendage lay a special censor. These censors were very adept at feeling different things, from temperature to electronic wavelengths and even feeling emotions, which seems like a bother if one's emotions are a total mess. Using these censors they can also control their spaceships and Jaka's certainly in for a trip.

Since the time he had left his home planet, Jaka has been on the move for almost six human years. He has been scouring the cosmos for any signs of hospitable planets which may provide relief from his dreary cycle of staring into the void. Only a few times on his journey was there any form of excitement, from dodging the flying debris of a supernova and avoiding metal-consuming asteroid worms, any change of scenery was far in-between. After what seemed like an eternity of having one's eyes swallowed by spaces endless void, a new opportunity shows its face. A small moon on the outskirts of a Jupiter-sized planet in an unknown solar system brings a bit of spark back into Jaka's eyes once again. Now one cannot celebrate without knowing what's to be had, so the young lad decides to descend to find if this planet is of any worth in the end.

Soon after his descent, Jaka is walking on the ground below. The gravity is just a tad lighter than what his home had and gives a new meaning to the phrase, a spring in your step. Taking this chance to scour a new land, the young cosmonaut explores his new surroundings. The land is covered in giant craggy mountains, with sparse vegetation at the bottom and foliage the size of skyscrapers at the tops. Rivers that normally run down are instead rolling up the mountains, almost as if they are being lifted by an escalator made of crystal clear jelly. Finding this intriguing, Jaka starts to climb one of these mountains but as he goes higher, the gravity beneath his feet starts to increase.

What once started as a simple jumping journey across the land soon became a weighted marathon climbing up an almost impossible ascent. But even with the rising gravity, Jaka found a way to ascend. Looking back at the water he gets a crazy idea. If he can't climb up the mountain, just let the water carry him up instead. Soon he is by the climbing river's edge and after taking a moment to contemplate, jumps right in. To his astonishment, he doesn't sink in. Instead, he gets stuck to the top by the means of some sticky outer coating on the water and starts getting pulled rapidly upside down towards the summit of the mountain. Within a few short minutes, he reaches the mountain tops where the water finally filters out into a high mountain lake. After a while, Jaka manages to wiggle himself free from his sticky transportation and crawls out to the banks.

Upon taking a look around this high-rise biome, Jaka soon realizes a few things. The gravity at the peaks is quite similar to back home and the plants are littered with fruits of all kinds to the point that they look like they will snap from the weight so food isn't a problem. After taking a moment to relax and gain his composure, he also soon realizes that the air is also pure enough that he can breathe without his suit. Taking his helmet off, he takes his first breath of this planet's crisp clear air.

Soon he is walking around this forest of skyscrapers but he quickly stops after an eerie crack resounds from under his feet. Looking down, he finds what looks like the remains of a bipedal creature under his feet, eaten away by time and insects. Quickly Jaka surveys his surroundings for whatever could have been the fate of this being, which could also soon be his. Very soon he comes to a grave realization about the situation he's in. He rode the sticky waterways to get up to the mountain top, but he didn't think about a way to be able to get back down afterward. He is now isolated in a land of unknowns and without any assistance, only time will tell if he survives.